Monday, June 22, 2015

The BJP As We Knew It

Out of the many random
questions that traipse their winding way through the empty corridors of my mind
at hazy, lazy moments, catching me unawares and without any answers is
the question- whatever happened to the BJP as we knew it ? is the BJP of the
present the same as the party we had waited for , through the endless
years of the UPA, to come to power at the center and lead us out of the maze of mind boggling corruption, cosy cronyism and deafening silences? or is it some other variant, like a genetically
modified brinjal, for which one has neither developed a taste nor an
appetite? The question, like a pesky, precocious child doesn't stop
there. It carries on to ask- and if what we are now being subjected to is the
genetically modified version then will we ever, for five years, five
months,five days- ever- be able to see the old lotus- the one we had voted for- bloom and savor its
politics?

Much like a mathematics
student trying to figure out the proverbial mystery of X, I try and
assemble the strewn pieces of my thoughts into a composite whole
capable of answering the question. Like most questions in a person's life it
soon comes down to the 'I' in the Id, or ,as in this case, the 'we' of a
society. If the BJP as we knew it has , like a truant monsoon,
bypassed and cold shouldered us then how much responsibility should we ,the
people of a sovereign socialist secular republic, own up to? However, applying
oneself to the whole conundrum becomes too painful a process and one does
exactly what one should have done in the beginning- close the doors to
those winding corridors

But as the Sushma Swaraj /
Lalit Modi/ Vasundhara Raje/ saga unfolded on television channels
and one witnessed, yet again, the bankruptcy of morality, propriety,
accountability and ownership by politicians and Very Influential People one
realized that the dimming and damming of the saffron color has well and truly
taken place. The BJP in which its leaders both distribute and curry
favors with those on the wrong side of the law has come a long way from the
parent party, the Jan Sangh, founded by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.

Here was
a party which had been 'our party' for the longest time ever. It could have taken the road
less traveled but it seemed to have lost its will and way in those yellow woods
and opted for the road where the leaves lay well and truly trampled by the GOP,
the Congress.

The party in which its
tallest leader, also the first non congress prime minister to complete a full
term in office, believed in the ideology ,as revealed in his poetry, क़दममिलाकरचलनाहोगा (we will have to match steps and walk together)is now
leaving no stone unturned to ensure that a democratically elected government in
Delhi is not able to walk at all. It is another story that the said
democratically elected government is also leaving no stone unturned in
committing political hara-kiri.This was the party which won only two seats in
the general elections of 1984 but still managed to make an impression. Now, the
party has 282 seats of its own in the Lok Sabha but is going in the negative
where making a positive impression is concerned.

Did we, the BJP loyalists,
wait all these years to see ministers and spokespersons look and behave
as replicas of the Congress ministers and spokespersons? The same
bluster, arrogance and , now we know, the same core beliefs. Yes, the Congress,
for us, had always been corrupt and arrogant. But for the BJP to behave in the
same manner- no less than a body blow. One now knows exactly what made Charles
Bukowski write, "Are there good
governments and bad governments? No, there are only bad governments and worse governments.”
(The Most Beautiful Woman in Town and
Other Stories).

Anju.. Very aptly put.. It is hard to believe when you see Modi / Shah make the BJP into another Congress / RJD / JD / SP level... The one difference that this party had was freedom of speech.. .With Modi, even that is being curbed... Dictatorism at its best..

About Me

I am a firm believer in Krishna's philosophy of Karma- and as a natural corollary to this belief have worked and lived so as to give grief to as few people as possible while enjoying my life , my work and myself.